January 2001 University Reporter

by Leigh DuPuy

Nigel Hamilton returns to UMass Boston with a new project, to write a full-length biography on Bill Clinton using the Internet as a research tool. Hamilton, who is the director of the British Institute of Biography and a professor of biography at De Monfort University in Great Britain, will embark on his new project while a visiting fellow at the McCormack Institute of Public Affairs.

Hamilton estimates it will take him four years to research and write Bill Clinton: An American Journey, a comprehensive biography that will span from 1946 to the present day. “I first became interested in Clinton in 1991 because of his references to John F. Kennedy, Jr.,” explained Hamilton. “He sees himself in the Kennedy mold.” Hamilton is no stranger to the Kennedy phenomenon, having completed his biography JFK: Reckless Youth while he was a McCormack Institute visiting fellow from 1988 to 1994.

Hamilton approaches his biographies by first examining the riddle or puzzle of an individual. In addition to being interested in Clinton as a person, Hamilton also has been fascinated by how Clinton’s life mirrors the age from World War II to the present day. “Clinton reflects the heritage and experience of social and cultural changes that include Vietnam, race relations, the baby boom, dysfunctional families, feminism, and multiculturalism.”

For Hamilton, Clinton’s great struggle, Monica-gate, reflects a larger crisis of modern civilization. He notes, “This was a cultural struggle, with cultural implications similar to those prohibition had in the 1920s. We have mythologized our presidents for generations. Accepting the idea that presidents are only human is a milestone for us.”
To record his progress and involve others in the project, Hamilton has created an interactive website. Located at www.mccormack .umb.edu, the site is designed to be an expanding multimedia center, including regular updates on the biographical work, a database of interviews, and an interactive message board. UMass Boston students will assist Hamilton in the site’s maintenance and editing.

“The website is a potential portal of information nationwide,” explained Hamilton. “It will plot how an historical biography is compiled and created. This project is a book, but also a cultural product, which includes print, theatre, radio, television, film, and the Internet.” He intends the site to become a multimedia biography accessible for students, scholars, and others.

Is he worried other scholars will use his web site for their own Clinton biographies? Hamilton responds, “I welcome different approaches. Biography can never be confined to one point of view. There is never a definitive biography because there are always opposing perspectives of a subject.”

This philosophy is the keystone for Real-lives.com, a web site of which Hamilton is the director. Real-lives.com is a site for on-line biographies, most of which have been written by students or alumni of the British Institute of Biography. One of the goals of the site is to provide a compilation of biographies that reflect many different opinions, interpretations, and anecdotes.

Hamilton is the originator of the British Institute of Biography, a British foundation established in 1996 to promote the study of biography. Holding the only chair in biography in England, Hamilton specializes in the study and teaching of twentieth-century depiction, in all forms of media.

“Biography spans the humanities,” Hamilton said. “It touches upon history, literature, science, and politics. Biography reflects the culture and changes throughout the decades.” Hamilton is a passionate advocate for the study of biography. He points out that biography is the biggest selling area in nonfiction books for the US and Britain, and covers a wide range from tabloids to scholarly multi-volume works.
Hamilton will publish his work with Random House and has been working with Bob Lumas, the editor who worked on the Ronald Reagan biography, Dutch.
For more information on this project and Hamilton’s other projects, check out these websites: www.mccormack.umb.edu/clintonbio/welcome.html, and www.real-lives.com.

Biography and the Web: Visiting Fellow Starts Clinton Bio

by Leigh DuPuy